Mark Stone wants to help foster youth get a diploma

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, wants to fit more foster children with a cap and gown.

With the state Legislature back in session, Stone introduced a bill Monday to make it easier to transfer partial credits between high schools, something foster children shuttling between homes often must contend with. He hopes to improve poor graduation rates among children who become wards of the state.

"Students in foster care face many challenges to academic success," Stone said. "This bill is a modest but necessary step to help ensure that students in foster care are fairly awarded the academic credit they deserve by better defining how school districts award credit to transferring foster youth."

Tracking educational achievement of foster youth is difficult, but a recent study by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning found one in three attended more than one school during the academic year.

Furthermore, 10 percent changed schools at least three times during the year, a rate that exceeds that of the general student population by a factor of 10. And while 84 percent of California children get a high school diploma, just 58 percent of foster youth do -- the lowest of any at-risk group.

With so many transfers, students can end up doing work for courses in which they never receive credit, making it more difficult to meet graduation requirements. Stone's bill aims to shore up standards for awarding partial credit.

While the bill, AB 1441, is likely to evolve over the upcoming session, it requires the state's 1,100 districts to adopt policies for how partial credit for foster youth transfers would be handled. It also requires the state superintendent of public instruction to send annual notices to districts about the requirements.

Stone chairs the Assembly Human Services Committee, and in his first year in the Legislature authored two bills aimed at helping the state's 55,000 foster youth.

AB 1441 is Stone's first new 2014 bill.

The upcoming session should be full of intrigue for Monterey Bay's delegation. Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, is pursuing a long-sought soda tax, among other goals, and was recently named chair of the Senate Insurance Committee, replacing Sen. Ron Calderon, the subject of an FBI corruption probe.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, is following up on his stellar 2013 session with several new efforts, including pursuing legislation to restore community revitalization programs.